IMPORTANT POINTS:
The Part-Time Administrator should continue to be in charge of the affairs of the Society, but under the orders of this Court for a period not more than one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment, so that the Registrar of Co-operative Societies can issue necessary notice under Rule 44 (3) of the KCS Rules to the petitioners and complete the proceedings there-under, after affording them reasonable opportunity of being heard. Once the Registrar of Cooperative Societies thus takes a decision as to if the petitioners have ceased to be in office or otherwise; and in the event his decision is that they have so ceased, then the competent Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies will forthwith decide the manner in which the Society will be further administered, either through the Part-Time Administrator or through an Administrative Committee comprising of the former members of the Managing Committee who have faced no disqualification under Rule 44 (1).

1. The operational interplay of the provisions in the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act ('KCS Act' for short) and the Kerala Co-operative Societies Rules ('KCS Rules' for short), in the realm of disqualification and consequential cessation of office of the members of a Managing Committee of a Co-operative Society, has been put under the spotlight in the writ petition.

2. The provisions of Rule 44 of the KCS Rules are in itself a complete Code for all matters relating to the disqualification of membership to the Managing Committee of Societies registered under the KCS Act; and sub rule (1) thereof enumerates the specific disqualifications for a person for being elected or appointed as a member of the said committee. The said sub rule stipulates various types of disqualifications and mandates that when any person suffers any of them, he/she shall not be eligible for being appointed or elected as a member of the Managing Committee. After so providing, sub rule (2) of Rule 44 ordains that a member of the Managing Committee of any Society, which obviously refers to a person already in office, shall cease to hold his office if he becomes disqualified under sub rule (1).

3. Ineluctably, the sum total effect of these two provisions is that a person, who had been earlier elected validly to the Managing Committee of a Society but has subsequently suffered any of the disqualifications enumerated in Rule 44 (1) of the KCS Rules, will then cease to hold his office. However, there is a check to this declaratory provision through the mandate of sub rule 3 of Rule 44 and since this is the provision on which the contentions of all the parties are edificed, I deem it appropriate to extract it as under:

3. If any person is or becomes disqualified to be a member of the committee, the Registrar may on his won motion or on a representation made to him by any member of the society or by its Financing Bank by an order in writing declare that he shall cease to be a member of the committee of the society concerned from the date of such disqualification. Before passing an order, the Registrar shall give such person an opportunity to state his objections, if any, against the proposed action and if the person wishes to be heard he shall be given an opportunity to be heard.

4. I have begun this judgment with the afore exordium because the petitioners in this writ petition claim to be the members of the Managing Committee of the 4th respondent Service Co-operative Bank (hereinafter referred to as 'Society' for short), who allege that they are now being attempted to be removed from office by the Authorities under the KCS Act, in violation of Rule 44 (3) of the KCS Rules.

5. The petitioners admit that proceedings to surcharge them, under Section 68 of the KCS Act, were initiated on certain allegations, finally leading to a report being finalized by the competent Authority under Section 68 (2) of the KCS Act, a copy of which report is on record as Ext.P8. They then allege that merely for the reason that Ext.P8 report has been finalized against them, the Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies has, without any proceedings being initiated under the above extracted provisions of Rule 44 (3) of the KCS Rules, issued Ext.P11 order, ostensibly invoking his powers under Section 33 (1) of the KCS Act, removing the entire Managing Committee and placing a Part Time Administrator to be in charge of the affairs of the Society, recording the reason for doing so as being that since the petitioners are disqualified under Rule 44(1) of the KCS Rules, the Managing Committee will obtain no quorum to function further.

6. The petitioners contend that even assuming that they have acquired any disqualification under Rule 44 (1) of the KCS Rules, on account of Ext.P8 surcharge report having been finalized against them under Section 68(2) of the KCS Act, they cannot be construed to have ceased to be in office automatically, except through the process sanctioned under Rule 44 (3